• Star Parties with the Central Valley Astronomers, at the Buck Ridge Recreation Area at Hensley Lake State Park, are scheduled for after 8 p.m. on August 23, August 30, October 25, November 22, and December 20.

• Central Valley Astronomers meetings will be at 7-9 p.m. in East Engineering 191, on:
  October 11, November 8, and December 13 (Gadget Night).
  

If this doesn't seem like fun to you, something is wrong. Likewise, some students treat doing their homework as a dreadful chore. This isn't right: astronomy is an elective course, and it's a competitive profession. If it isn't fun, you may be happier in an easier, more lucrative field. (Most are.)

• Five black-and-white CCD images (in FITS format) of separate astronomical objects.
  

  These may be taken with a clear filter, or with any of the other filters we have. Images through an H-alpha filter are especially recommended, for their high contrast, even during Full Moon, and their "dreamy" quality, especially of H II regions (also called emission nebulae).
  

  Grading for all images will depend on their quality. They should not be underexposed (with visible pixels or graininess), overexposed (with saturation or blooming), out of focus, noticeably trailed, over-processed (in a way that makes the image look unnatural, e.g. with rings or halos around star images from overzealous unsharp masking, or flat white star images from too much smoothing, or a flat black-and-white look from too much contrast enhancement), or with other noticeable image processing artifacts. It can help to have a target centered in the frame, and surrounded by aesthetically pleasing black sky.
  

  These images must be recorded as FITS-format images on a CD or DVD, and turned in to Dr. Ringwald. These images must be accompanied by a short, plain-text description of how the image was made, similar to those on the Campus Observatory gallery pages. (See http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/gallery.html). These are important, since Dr. Ringwald may post these images to the Campus Observatory gallery pages, if they are of high quality. Not including the captions will cause "A" images to be recorded as "B" images.
  

• Five separate 16-bit color PNC-format images made from video (AVI-format files) that were taken with a planetary imager such as the Philips ToUcam, and processed with Registax software, of different fields of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn, bright stars, colorful stars, or binary or multiple star systems.
  

  Planetary images should record the dates on which they were taken. Images of the Moon must identify which particular features are shown: Moon maps are available in the Campus Observatory.
  

  These images should recorded as 16-bit PNG format images on a CD or DVD, and turned in to Dr. Ringwald. They should accompanied by a short, plain-text description of how the image was made, similar to those on the Campus Observatory gallery pages (see above). Grading will depend on the above considerations concerning image quality and image descriptions. Not including the captions will cause "A" images to be recorded as "B" images.
  

• One full-color CCD image of any deep-sky object (including M1, M31, M45, M74, M76, M77, M78, or NGC 891), or of a comet, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, or any other Trans-Neptunian object, taken with the ST-9 CCD camera. In addition to the above considerations concerning image quality and image descriptions, the color should look natural, unless you can explain convincingly why an alternative color scheme helps one better understand the nature of the target.
  

  Color images from the ST-9 camera should be turned in as lossless JPEG-format images. These color images should be accompanied by FITS-format images of each of the (three, four, or five) combined black-and-white images that were used to make this color image, including the combined red, green, and blue frames and the luminance and H alpha frames, if used, but please don't include every one of the raw black-and-white FITS frames.
  

  These images should be recorded on a CD or DVD and turned in to Dr. Ringwald, accompanied by a short, plain-text description of how the image was made, similar to those on the Campus Observatory gallery pages (see above). Grading will depend on the above considerations concerning image quality and image descriptions. Not including the captions will cause "A" images to be recorded as "B" images.
  

• A successful measurement of the time of mid-transit of HD 209458b, HD 189733b, TrES-1b, or any other extrasolar planet. The timing should be accurate to within 0.1 seconds, calibrated by using the "Nistime" software on the observatory's computer. The photometry must be correctly reduced and given in a three-column table, listing Julian Date (not heliocentrically corrected), V-C magnitudes, and C-K magnitudes. (For more on this, see the chapter on photometry of Berry & Burnell.) It must show the transit, including the ingress and the egress. This means that, for all three exoplanets mentioned above, they must be observed for at least 3 and preferably 5 hours, centered on the time of mid-transit.) For more on timing extrasolar planet transits, see http://www.transitsearch.org/.
  

• Eight hours of time-resolved, differential photometry, either of V825 Her or V378 Peg, or other objects. These data should be of the quality to be useful for participating in campaigns for the Center for Backyard Astrophysics (see http://cba.phys.columbia.edu/), American Association of Variable Star Observers (http://www.aavso.org), or other professionally coordinated campaigns. Sixteen hours will count as two projects, etc. This photometry must be correctly reduced and given in a three-column table, listing Julian Date (not heliocentrically corrected), V-C magnitudes, and C-K magnitudes. (For more on this, see the chapter on photometry of Berry & Burnell.)
  

• For any of the above projects, one-quarter credit will be given for students who process images that were taken by someone else, including any of the images provided by Dr. Ringwald. This may be useful if anyone has poor luck with the weather, and is unable to get as many of the above observing projects completed as they would like.
  

• Other observations, of your own devising, of scientific interest: Dr. Ringwald welcomes consulting with him about these first. If, in the course of any of these projects, you produce data that are scientifically useful, Dr. Ringwald would be glad to help you publish it. If you'd rather contribute your data to one of Dr. Ringwald's papers, you will be listed as a co-author on the paper, but Dr. Ringwald must insist that you give the manuscript for the paper a good, careful read, in order to spot errors or ways to improve the paper, before submitting the paper to the journal.

However, if you do collaborate, it must be genuine collaboration: not one person doing all the work, and the others blindly copying. That's cheating! Therefore, while you may work on homework together, write up the results separately, in your own words. A dead giveaway is when two images are exactly the same: this is very noticeable.

Upon identifying themselves to the instructor and the university, students with disabilities will receive reasonable accommodation for learning and evaluation. For more information, contact Services to Students with Disabilities in Madden Library 1049 (559-278-2811).

Modifying someone else's work slightly, or changing the text around, or stringing someone else's paragraphs together, even if they're cited, is no better: none of these dubious practices make it your work. For information on the University's policy regarding cheating and plagiarism, refer to the Schedule of Courses (Legal Notices on Cheating and Plagiarism) or the University Catalog (Policies and Regulations).

If Dr. Ringwald finds any plagiarized work, the student will receive an F for the entire course. Dr. Ringwald may also send the plagiarized work to the Dean and recommend the student be expelled from the University. Do NOT plagiarize!

Cheating is the actual or attempted practice of fraudulent or deceptive acts for the purpose of improving one's grade or obtaining course credit; such acts also include assisting another student to do so. Typically, such acts occur in relation to examinations. However, it is the intent of this definition that the term 'cheating' not be limited to examination situations only, but that it include any and all actions by a student that are intended to gain an unearned academic advantage by fraudulent or deceptive means. Plagiarism is a specific form of cheating which consists of the misuse of the published and/or unpublished works of others by misrepresenting the material (i.e., their intellectual property) so used as one's own work." Penalties for cheating and plagiarism range from a 0 or F on a particular assignment, through an F for the course, to expulsion from the university. For more information on the University's policy regarding cheating and plagiarism, refer to the Class Schedule (Polcy/Legal Statements) or the University Catalog (University policies).

At California State University, Fresno, computers and communications links to remote resources are recognized as being integral to the education and research experience. Every student is required to have his/her own computer or have other personal access to a workstation (including a modem and a printer) with all the recommended software. The minimum and recommended standards for the workstations and software, which may vary by academic major, are updated periodically and are available from Information Technology Services or the University Bookstore. In the curriculum and class assignments, students are presumed to have 24-hour access to a computer workstation and the necessary communication links to the University's information resources.

http://www.lib.csufresno.edu/libraryinformation/campus/copyright/copyrtpolicyfull.pdf

Digital Campus course web sites contains material protected by copyrights held by the instructor, other individuals or institutions. Such material is used for educational purposes in accord with copyright law and/or with permission given by the owners of the original material. You may download one copy of the materials on any single computer for non-commercial, personal, or educational purposes only, provided that you (1) do not modify it, (2) use it only for the duration of this course, and (3) include both this notice and any copyright notice originally included with the material. Beyond this use, no material from the course web site may be copied, reproduced, re-published, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way without the permission of the original copyright holder. The instructor assumes no responsibility for individuals who improperly use copyrighted material placed on the web site.

• Phys 150 Astrophysics (to be offered 2010 Spring). Prerequisite: Phys 4C.
• Phys 152/175T Galaxies and Cosmology (to be offered 2009 Spring). Prerequisite: Phys 4C.